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Venice and Florence are the two most visited Italian cities outside of Rome itself and round out the must-see itinerary for tourists to Italy. Venice lies on the coast, and with its famous maze of canals and marble churches, basks in the glory of its heyday as the country's trade capital. Florence is the capital of the mountainous Tuscany region, and it was here that the Italian Renaissance was born. Both cities are cultural meccas, and luckily, there are several ways to travel between the two.

Step 1

Go by plane. The fastest way to travel between Venice and Florence is by way of a quick domestic flight. The Marco Polo Airport in Venice has occasional flights to Florence´s Amerigo Vespucci airport as well as regular flights to Pisa's Galileo Galilei airport, which is an hour away from Florence by train. The trip takes under two hours to either destination and then tack on an extra hour if traveling by train from Pisa. Keep in mind that within Italy, air travel is expensive, and other forms of transportation will be cheaper and are sometimes almost as fast, all things considered.

Step 2

Go by train. The Italian train network is extensive, efficient and sometimes extremely crowded, especially between heavily traveled destinations like Venice and Florence. Regular and direct trains from Venice's Stazione Santa Lucia run to Florence's Stazione di Santa Maria Novella, taking around three hours total one-way. Prices depend on class of ticket and the speed of the train. As of May 2010, Italian high-speed trains made the trips several times a week in about two hours, which costs about twice as much as the slower trains. For those not in a hurry, a train trip between Venice and Florence is easily broken up by a trip to the historic university town of Bologna.

Step 3

Go by car. A variety of rental car agencies are located at the Piazzale Roma in Venice as well as at the Marco Polo airport. You will need an international drivers license to rent a car in Italy. From Venice, the major highway A13 goes through Padova and Ferrara before arriving in Bologna. From there you would have to take the E35 across the central mountains to get to Florence. The entire trip can be done in under four hours, but there is so much scenery along the way that you may want to break it up into several days if time allows. Once in Bologna, cars can be returned to rental car agencies in the Borgo Ognissanti area.

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Leaf Group is a USA TODAY content partner providing general travel information. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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About the Author

Based in San Francisco, Ocean Malandra is a travel writer, author and documentary filmmaker. He runs a major San Francisco travel website, is widely published in both online and print publications and has contributed to several travel guidebooks to South America.